The present invention relates to a card sorting machine for sorting a or plural desired card or cards from a group of cards each of the cards having coded toothed notches at its lower edge.
There have conventionally been proposed a number of such card sorting machines which use cards having toothed notches at their lower edges. For example, the machine shown in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,478,877 enables sorting of cards by a first separation of cards for moving a or plural selected card or cards in the horizontal direction for one pitch of a select bar and the subsequent or second separation in the same and further horizontal direction.
FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a card sorting machine already proposed by the inventor of this invention (Japanese Patent Publication No. 56153/1983). According to the machine shown, when the second or subsequent separation, referred to in the above-mentioned conventional machine, is made, the card(s) is moved into different direction than that of the above U.S. patent. The structure of the machine of FIG. 1 is explained at first. A group of cards 4 each having coded toothed notches at the lower edge and a magnetic piece at the front edge are placed on a group of select bars in a housing. By the input of a code from a keyboard, not shown, select bars are selectively raised.
Cards to be selected are those not caught by the raised select bars, and by a selecting magnet being fixed to a selecting magnet mounting stand 13 the selected cards are moved in the horizontal direction for one pitch of the select bar (first separation). By moving the card selecting magnet mounting stand 13 in the upper forward direction, the selected card is moved into the upper forward direction, while remaining other cards not selected.
The above-mentioned card sorting machine has widely been used for sorting a large number of drawings. In such usage, the drawings are at first photographed on micro-films and each of the drawings is attached to a card of the aperture type, so that the cards with the micro-film may be sorted.
According to the card sorting machine of the type, however, selected cards must be removed each time by the operator of the machine. In other words, if the cards are not removed off the machine, they return to the original position on the select bars when the selecting magnet mounting stand 13 is returned to the position shown in FIG. 1.
Therefore, for carrying out the sorting processes for many kinds of cards at one time, the operator must input a code from the operating desk, not shown, to carry out the sorting, and then removing the selected cards after sorting; and for the next process he must again input next code and remove the then selected cards.
An object of this invention is therefore to provide a card sorting machine suitable for continuous sorting.